Change things in your program, so you can experiment with correcting the
effects of one bug and go on to learn about another.

You can use gdb to debug programs written in C, C++, Fortran and
Modula-2.

gdb is invoked with the shell command gdb. Once started, it reads
commands from the terminal until you tell it to exit with the gdb
command quit. You can get online help from gdb itself
by using the command help.

You can run gdb with no arguments or options; but the most
usual way to start gdb is with one argument or two, specifying an
executable program as the argument:

gdb program

You can also start with both an executable program and a core file specified:

gdb program core

You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument, if you want
to debug a running process:

gdb program 1234
gdb -p 1234

would attach gdb to process 1234 (unless you also have a file
named 1234; gdb does check for a core file first).
With option -p you can omit the program filename.

Here are some of the most frequently needed gdb commands:

break [file:]function

Set a breakpoint at function (in file).

run [arglist]

Start your program (with arglist, if specified).

bt

Backtrace: display the program stack.

print expr

Display the value of an expression.

c

Continue running your program (after stopping, e.g. at a breakpoint).

next

Execute next program line (after stopping); step over any
function calls in the line.

edit [file:]function

look at the program line where it is presently stopped.

list [file:]function

type the text of the program in the vicinity of where it is presently stopped.

step

Execute next program line (after stopping); step into any
function calls in the line.

help [name]

Show information about gdb command name, or general information
about using gdb.

quit

Exit from gdb.

Any arguments other than options specify an executable
file and core file (or process ID); that is, the first argument
encountered with no
associated option flag is equivalent to a -se option, and the second,
if any, is equivalent to a -c option if it's the name of a file.
Many options have
both long and short forms; both are shown here. The long forms are also
recognized if you truncate them, so long as enough of the option is
present to be unambiguous. (If you prefer, you can flag option
arguments with + rather than -, though we illustrate the
more usual convention.)

All the options and command line arguments you give are processed
in sequential order. The order makes a difference when the -x
option is used.

-help

-h

List all options, with brief explanations.

-symbols=file

-s file

Read symbol table from file file.

-write

Enable writing into executable and core files.

-exec=file

-e file

Use file file as the executable file to execute when
appropriate, and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core
dump.

-se=file

Read symbol table from file file and use it as the executable
file.

-core=file

-c file

Use file file as a core dump to examine.

-command=file

-x file

Execute gdb commands from file file.

-ex command

Execute given gdbcommand.

-directory=directory

-d directory

Add directory to the path to search for source files.

-nh

Do not execute commands from ~/.gdbinit.

-nx

-n

Do not execute commands from any .gdbinit initialization files.

-quiet

-q

“Quiet”. Do not print the introductory and copyright messages. These
messages are also suppressed in batch mode.

-batch

Run in batch mode. Exit with status 0 after processing all the command
files specified with -x (and .gdbinit, if not inhibited).
Exit with nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the gdb
commands in the command files.

Batch mode may be useful for running gdb as a filter, for example to
download and run a program on another computer; in order to make this
more useful, the message

Program exited normally.

(which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under gdb control
terminates) is not issued when running in batch mode.

-cd=directory

Run gdb using directory as its working directory,
instead of the current directory.

-fullname

-f

Emacs sets this option when it runs gdb as a subprocess. It tells
gdb to output the full file name and line number in a standard,
recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is displayed (which
includes each time the program stops). This recognizable format looks
like two ‘\032’ characters, followed by the file name, line number
and character position separated by colons, and a newline. The
Emacs-to-gdb interface program uses the two ‘\032’
characters as a signal to display the source code for the frame.

-b bps

Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any serial
interface used by gdb for remote debugging.